Jean Michel Basquiat And His Way To Communicate With The Viewer Through Art
Jean Michel Basquiat was one of Americas most charismatic and mesmerising painters. He is probably the most significant American artist of the 20th century. The late 1970s and 80s were an astounding moment that morphed and shaped Basquiat’s life and work. Making him one of the most iconic and original well renowned artists of his time. Basquiat “managed to create a significant body of work in just ten years and remains an artist of burning relevancy”. Basquiat was an artist who morphed, past and present history and culture, he then through his work transmitted all that he belived to be relevant. All historical, political and social aspects of life were channelled into, drawings, paintings, objects and even performance and music. He was the pioneering prodigy of the New York downtown scene. He was a performer, graffiti artist, poet and musician before he became a full-time international painter. Although Basquiat never actually attended art school, he learned by wondering through New York galleries and listening to his father’s music collection he played at home when he was a child.
The Oxford dictionary definition of representation is the act of presenting somebody/something in a particular way; something that shows or describes something. Basquiat drew inspiration from many unexpected places, a medical encyclopedia was probably his most powerful influence, Grey’s Anatomy. The anatomical drawings ignited an obsession and fascination with the body and the way it functions. These fascinations manifested in the guts, ligaments, joints, limbs, skulls and bones in his later work. These works “frequently explore both the power and vulnerability of marginalized bodies”. Evidently, this can be seen clearly in Leaches, 1983, Liberty 1983 and King Brand 1983.
The first thing that comes to mind when I see a Basquiat, is children’s drawings. His work is very raw and to the point. Basquiat once said that he respected the drawings of children much more than the works of ‘real’ artists. Despite the minimalistic childlike rendering and the clear randomness of the lines, scratchy lettering, sketches and paintings showed in his work. This can be seen most prominently in his piece, Untitled 1982, felt-tip pen and oil stick on paper. Basquiat’s works are one of the very few examples of how despite an unstudied appearance, his skillfull host of traditions, practices and styles create an original kind of visual collage. Often referencing distant African-Caribbean Heritage, his first works show his interest in combining text with imagery, the art scene at the time was fed up with conceptual and minimalist styles. They wanted other styles that would bring people back to the galleries. Basquiat’s Neo-Expressive style combined with his downtown origins became a sought-after sarcastic style of work. In many of his works he depicts saints, heroes and martyrs. Basquiat was an artist that had a style that everyone could relate to. He was very critical of the artist and the misconceptions that surrounded them. Basquiat’s art was deeply political. He constantly struggled being a black artist in America. Around 30 years before The Black Lives Matter movement. When Basquiat started with his SAMO wall graffiti in 1978, the “anarchic mass movement of spraying had already passed its peak.” It was his poems he created with friend Al Diaz that caught the attention of the media, public and the downtown art scene. Basquiat’s work communicates to the viewer by drawing their attention to the problems in society. He uses his vast amount knowledge and understanding of current and past affairs to create visual representations of what is happening and what has happened in the world.
The piece A Panel of Experts, 1982 marked a crucial turning point in Basquiat’s work. The canvas was stretched over wooden supports bound together with twine; the cross bars were visible at each corner. The supports became a trademark of Basquiat’s work during the early 80s. During Basquiat’s childhood he had aspirations to become a cartoonist. Later in life he would work in front of a television in his studio. A Panel of Experts was inspired by what he was watching on television. The actual canvas shows a striking resemblance to a small black television screen. The reference to the Looney Tunes Road Runner with the words ‘BEEP BEEP’. Also, on the left side of the canvas a superhero figure is being struck by what looks like lightening. With the repeated word ‘KRAK’ relating to the comic book reference of using onomatopoetic sound effects. I feel that this piece communicates with the viewer through the huge amount of symbolism, raw emotion and drama. The work embodies the passion and monotony of everyday life. The work makes reference to specific events in Basquiat’s life, for example, the fight in the top corner of the left rectangle is a representation of two females in a nightclub in a New York bar. Those people being Suzanne Mallouk, Basquiat’s girlfriend, and his lover Madonna. Mallouk’s nickname was Venus. This explains the writing in the top left of the canvas. Despite the copyright symbol alongside Madonna’s name, she wasn’t yet a celebrity. Just this example alone is suggestive that Basquiat encountered a lot of chaos and passion within his life time, as do we all. I feel like this work is very relatable. To me, I see a cycle of life. Days pass by, we eat, indulge in pleasures, we have lovers, we encounter tragedy and it repeats itself. The arrows indicate the constant direction flow of life. The sugar-coated corn puffs are food. The comic book and television references signify pleasure. Venus and Madonna stipulate love and the revolver clearly signals death and tragedy.
Basquiat’s pictorial style is violent and energetic. ‘Slave Auction’ demonstrates his interest in oppressed minorities. It is a large format painting painted in 1982 and realized in a mixed technique composed of crumpled papers, paint and pastels. The work is kept at the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The artist draws on the urban repertoire of composition that he integrates into his work: Rectangular shapes, verticals, horizontals, grids. Traced networks harmonize like veins of the human body. Again, another possible reference to Grey’s anatomy. The technique used is mixed because it includes both collages and painting. In January 1982 rumour spread that Annina Nosei had a boy genius locked in her basement. When Basquiat heard about this, he said “if I was white, they would have just called me an artist in residence.” Basquiat struggled massively due to ethical and racial discrimination. Just because he was a black man. I feel that the work portrays the absurd history of the slave trade. However, Basquiat also made the work relevant, influential and current. Notice how he has sketched a black American football player, to me this indicates that double standards and discrimination of the black man still existed and affected Basquiat. This is evident throughout his work. Another piece that I feel communicates with the viewer via racism is ‘Defacement’. Basquiat created ‘Defacement’ to commemorate the brutal murder of young black street artist Michael Stewart, who allegedly tagged a wall in an East Village subway station. The New York transit police’s first reaction was to beat him to death. ‘Defacement’ was created in Keith Haring’s studio and was never meant to be publicly viewed or sold. This infers that Basquiat felt a huge personal connection to this work. The piece explores black identity and protests against police brutality and police misconduct. The work also conveys an idea of self-empowerment and rebellion, being a young black man himself, Basquiat felt he needed to do something to express his deepest feelings and emotions. The work is currently the centre piece in Williams College, Massachusetts. It is now sparking a series of discussions about gross misconduct, police brutality, black identity and the Black Lives Matter movement. As you can see Basquiat’s work still communicates, resonates and influences the youth of today just as it did all those years ago. Basquiat uses his race as a political agender to direct the viewers’ attentions towards the failure of society. He does this using graphic and honest paintings and sketches. To talk once more of his childlike style and technique, the style is basic and easy to follow. Like cave drawings for example. They show exactly what is happening. Therefore, more people are able to engage with his political rebellion. More people are able to share his passions for neo- expressive styles and fights for cultural diversity.
To conclude, Basquiat’s work didn’t just outline and narrate his thoughts, feelings and views on self-identity and morality, it also gave us an intuition into his personal life. Basquiat’s sister said, “If you want to know, what there is to know about Jean Michel, the place to go is to his work.” Being a young black artist who used the ghettos and suburbs of New York, scarcely had support from his parents and compassion from others around him. He really is the enigma and idea that surrounds a self-made artist. Therefore, it is unsurprising to see why he persistently questioned his self-worth and what it actually was that defined him. Could it have been his past? His proficient, original bodies artwork? Or his young age? Basquiat was under constant and tremendous personal stress, he was persistently in the public eye, he was also struggling with international fame and reputation. As a result of these external factors, Basquiat developed a heroin dependency, which eventually lead him to overdose. Whilst observing and studying Basquiat’s artist style, I have come to the conclusion that he captivates his viewers by depicting his personal life in his art pieces. He uses forceful and violent brush strokes whilst using irregular patches to create a distressed look. The erratic application of bright multicoloured paint over the canvas creates the illusion that he is experiencing immense personal stress and he uses his work as a conduit for his most personal endeavours. His style could give the sense or idea that he may have been under the influence of some kind of hardcore drug. Although his drug addiction decreased whilst working with Andy Warhol, there’s no denying that he had his demons. His work advanced and developed as he matured and grew as an artist and an individual. From the dark streets of lower New York as a youth, to exhibiting his concepts of self-discovery and identity. “The pain that Basquiat carried throughout his life brought him world fame, riches, and remembered him as one of the most influential artists in history also led to his demise”.
